Bob Bromley

Thank you, Madam Chair. I think we had three separate hits before we finally got to our final number on fire suppression costs last fiscal year. I’m wondering: do we know if this is the last one or do we anticipate whether there could be more supps for fire suppression for this fiscal year. Obviously, it would be handled by the 18th Assembly. Thank you.

Thank you, Madam Chair. The deputy minister has just said exactly what I said, albeit in more flowery terms. This is extremely disappointing. We have been trying to get this approved, the Child and Family Services Information System, as the Minister of Health knows, since the 16th Assembly. It was recognized that our child and family services workers are so flummoxed by this useless piece of software that they spend times driven to smoking, leaving the building and going out to smoke, because this is a useless piece of software that we have and it’s affecting the delivery of child and family...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to start by recognizing the Minister’s call for all people to be working on this, all those of us in authority, and have some responsibility for doing work on this. I think, in this particular case, I know when I, along with my colleagues Bisaro and Hawkins, in this case, attended the latest AGM of NWT council, I was a little bit shocked. I think Mr. Moses expressed disappointment that I felt in myself for not being more on top of that.

I’m glad to hear the Minister has already been working with the council and community councils in addressing many of the issues...

WHEREAS Canada ratified the United Nations Convention on the Rights of People with Disabilities in 2010;

AND WHEREAS persons with disabilities have the right to be treated equally, with dignity and respect;

AND WHEREAS almost 15 percent of the population of the NWT lives with a disability, which translates to a conservative 6,000 people, with challenges in every community;

AND WHEREAS an additional one in nine people in the NWT are impacted by a disability as family members and caregivers;

AND WHEREAS people with disabilities are at higher risk for neglect, abuse, poverty, isolation, depression...

I am calling for a cross-departmental response here and headed up by the Housing Corporation, although they are primarily capital approach, they certainly have a lot of housing programs. Housing First recognizes that the first step to helping homeless people out of poverty is to put a roof over their heads. Only then can the identifying problems that lead to homelessness be addressed effectively, sort of a step number two. In some areas civil society contributes to the caring of a family with a Housing First client to help provide social supports.

I’d like to ask the Minister, how is he working...

Thank you for that update to the Minister. I appreciate that and I think it sounds like we’re getting after it here. So, this is spread over two fiscal years. This will be finishing up the system, if that’s what we’re approving here today. Thank you.

I’m not quite sure what to say here. The Minister seems to be unaware of this, and yet this is fundamental to reducing our energy costs and so on.

Will the promised discussion paper be ready… I can’t even ask the rest of my question so I’ll have to stop here, Mr. Speaker. The Minister doesn’t have any information. I’ll have to say I’m very disappointed. We need our government to be on top of these important issues. Mahsi.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to recognize constituent Roy Erasmus. At least for the next couple of months he’s a constituent of Weledeh. So, welcome to the House.

I’d also like to welcome the visitors from the Yukon. You know, we don’t get nearly enough east-west interaction, so I really appreciate the visitors joining us in the House and visiting Yellowknife. Mahsi.

That sounds good, Madam Chair. I would be happy to provide the Minister with some examples. I’m sure he’s aware of them, but I’ll refresh his memory for people who are not able to get into facilities because of an income barrier. I will leave it at that. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I was following and supporting the Finance Minister’s report on the fiscal situation we are leaving for the 18th Assembly, noting the volatility of the global economy, the mining industry and our economy; low revenues; and the need to diversify. That is, until he suddenly and illogically looped back to saying that, therefore, we have to pursue the highly volatile and uncertain extractive industry even harder.

People are drained of any remnant of enthusiasm for this old way of thinking and they pine for recognition of the real opportunities we do have for vibrant...